The beeping sound of the monitor becomes music in my ear alongside with footsteps and cries of healers. I forget about the fact that I am the only werewolf in this kingdom, or that lycan warriors are observing my every move. Even when the curtain is closed, they can still hear and smell my presence.

In my old pack, I have only assisted in delivering a baby once. It was a night of blue moon when I was still a junior healer. My senior healer, Jen, was the one in charge of the delivery. Since it's pretty rare for werewolf females to conceive, let alone give birth in the recent decades, it was a pretty big event for us.

People surrounded the hospital while reciting prayers to the Moon Goddess. Even werewolves from other packs visited our pack to show support. It was that big of a deal.

As a junior healer, I could only hand tools to the senior healers and follow whatever they asked me to do. There were three other senior healers working on delivering the baby, each brought at least one junior healer, so the room was packed. Sometime that night, they told all the junior healers to go out of the room. The next thing I remembered was hearing the baby crying through the door.

The next morning, I heard the mother did not survive. But the entire pack was busy being overjoyed that another female had been born. They didn't have room to mourn the woman who sacrificed her life. Her body had not even been cleaned properly from the operating room, yet a party for the baby had been announced. And I remember thinking how sad it was.

When people were celebrating, I made it my task to clean the woman's body. When people cheered joyfully with beer, I cried because the world easily forgot about the woman behind their joys. I thought it was some sick joke from nature because the baby they were so proud of might be the next body on the operating table and no one would care for her then, as long as she could deliver another baby to keep the werewolf lineage going.

I didn't get up from my bed for days after that.

Gripping the pregnant woman's hand tighter, I focus on keeping the pain untangled on her body with my magic. When I touch this woman's hand, I get the picture of a fish being entangled in webs of nets, preventing it from swimming freely in the vast ocean. The fish is the embodiment of the woman's soul and the convoluted nets are the source of pain to this woman right now. With every minute passing, more tangles are formed. I know then that it is not enough to soothe her pain. I need to calm her fear, too.

With my other hand, I take the cloth that a healer has brought and wipe the woman's sweat. The woman's heart rate is increasing despite my magic. Her pupils travel all around the room, following the figures wearing scrubs. Two healers open the woman's feet to inspect what's under the blanket. One of them is shaking their head at the other, saying that we need to wait a few minutes more.

But the woman panics when she sees someone shaking his head during her labor. Her hand reaches out to the infusion set to rip it off. I can feel she's being terrified and that she's acting irrationally through my magic. Before anyone else notices, I yank her hand hard, making her look me straight in the eyes.

"Hey, hey, look at me," I whisper to her, "What's your name?"

The question makes her stop to think for a second.

"Elisa," she answers. As her pupils focus on me, they return to their normal sizes along with her heartbeat returning to normal.

"Elisa," I repeat her name while maintaining her eyes to keep staring at me, "You're going to be okay. Alright?"

White and warm light emerges from the tips of my fingers. They insert themselves into Elisa's skin, becoming one with her blood vessels. That's my magic, trying to soothe the adrenaline rushing in her veins while still concentrating on untangling the web of pain in her lower stomach.

"Breathe," I tell her, "Breathe."

Elisa takes a deep breath through her nose and lets it out from her mouth. She keeps repeating the motion when I nod encouragingly to her. "That's it. Good job," I say to her, "It'll be over soon before you know it."

Her eyes still look at me with fear. No matter how much adrenaline I've reduced in her blood, emotion is not something that we can just control chemically. Elisa herself must relax to subdue her own fear. There's only so much that magic and substances can do to alter our bodies.

"How do you know?" she asks me, "Hav–have you given birth before?"

I shake my head. "No. But I have watched it happen once." It's a lie. I didn't watch what happened to the woman who gave birth in my old pack. The words, however, make Elisa relax even for a little.

"Start the procedure now," says one of the lycan healers after examining the dilation of the cervix. Another healer puts a new warm blanket underneath Elisa. While another approaches the bed with a syringe. "I'll start administering the oxytocin," says the third healer, who is a young male.

"Um...," the young man looks at me in hesitation. "Are you sure you can subdue her pain through the entire procedure?"

'No', I'd like to say, 'I'm not sure.' I have never tried something like this before. Yes, I can feel what my patients were feeling, I could somehow sense their souls back in my old pack, but I have never attempted to manipulate their sensations. I jumped the gun immediately when I saw Elisa wailing in pain, but honestly, what I am doing to Elisa now is foreign territory for me. Remembering the woman who died after giving birth in my old pack makes me determined to save Elisa.

Yet... I doubt if I can–

"Aarrrghhh, it hurts!!" I panic as Elisa's ear-splitting screams is heard through the entire infirmary. "Urgghh, why does it hurt... so much?"

The monitor beeps faster than before, showing that Elisa's heart rate is increasing rapidly. Sweat beads pour out profusely from her pores as her gaze becomes frantic.

"The substance must have made it more painful for her to give birth normally," Ganesh says next to me, "The baby must be delivered in this instance. Inject that oxytocin now!"

The young man does as he was told. Yet the second the syringe lodges to Elisa's thigh, her claws pop out in reflex. I don't even have time to register what just happened. All I know is that blood is seeping out of my skin, down my elbow, and dropping to the floor. I don't have time to register the pain as I lock eyes with Elisa.

All doubts wash out of me, they are overruled by one thought in my mind; I need Elisa to calm her fear to make this labor procedure successful. Forgetting all the questions I had about myself, I concentrate on seeing that fish in the sea again. My wounded hand brightens with white light, and just like that, Elisa is breathing calmer now.

I work on untangling the nets on the fish's body in my mind. As soon as I focus on doing that, Elisa's face relaxes a little.

She returns to lie down on the bed. "It still hurts. It burns...," she whimpers.

"I think that's the effect of the substance on pregnant women with the mark," Ganesh says, "It's quite intriguing. To the women that aren't compatible, the substance seems to make their labor ten times more painful."

I almost roll my eyes at Ganesh in front of Elisa. He is totally not helping Elisa right now. His words cause her fear to spike again! He is also not helping me at all, because now I know I can't reduce all of her pain.

"Keep looking at me, Elisa," I tell her immediately in an attempt to distract her from her fear. When a healer instructs Elisa to push, I grip her hand tighter.

"Push," I urge her, "I might not be able to subdue all the pain now, but trust me, you'll survive."

"All you need is to keep pushing until I tell you to stop, okay?" There is no hesitation in my voice. No matter what, I will deliver this baby and keep Elisa safe.

Elisa nods at me. She trusts me. And we both choose to ignore our fears.

"Push."

A guttural cry comes out of her mouth as she pushes with all her might. Sweat pours out from her face even more, as we both try to overcome her immense pain.

"Very good," Ganesh says, "Keep pushing."

"Ready? One. Two. Three. Push!"

Another guttural cry fills the entire infirmary as Elisa gives another powerful push while I focus on untangling the nets on Elisa's fish in my mind. No matter how fast I go, I can't untangle all the nets fast enough, but I have no time to doubt myself or feel bad because Elisa still feels some of the pain.

"The head has emerged," the healer announces.

"Again, Elisa," I urge her, "Push. It's so near. You can do it!"

Together, we push again and again to deliver the baby. Our hands are interlocked so tightly together that our nails are becoming white. I am also sweating profusely as if I am also delivering a baby of my own.

Then, silence.

There is only utter silence for a few long seconds.

Until we hear the cry of a baby. I blink several times to make sure that I am not hearing things wrong. In the hands of one healer, a small red baby is crying. My mouth forms a smile on its own. Immediately I look at Elisa who is extremely tired.

"You did it!" I cry out to her, "You did it! You did it!"

Elisa's eyes seem heavy, but she gives me a smile. While I keep untangling the nets in my mind to keep subduing her pain, I grab a towel to wipe Elisa's sweat. "You did amazing," I praise her.

"It's a healthy boy, Elisa," Ganesh says. He retrieves the baby with one hand from one of the healers, who just put a towel around the baby. In a few swift motions, a healer cuts the umbilical cord, and another takes it out of Elisa, then stores it in a sterile vessel.

Ganesh delivers the baby to Elisa's chest with a towel wrapped around the baby for the mother-baby first skin contact. As soon as the baby feels Elisa's warmth, the baby snuggles to her chest. Elisa lets go of my hand to hold the baby, but I keep my hand on her shoulder and keep untangling her source of pain. Though those tangled nets are getting less with more time passing after delivery.

I can't look away from the baby. No matter how many times I blink, I can't get enough of the fact of how small this baby is. Yet this small creature will grow big and become someone in the world. His tiny chest rises and falls with the same rhythm as Elisa.

How can one not immediately feel protective of this small boy? How can one not fall in love with this small creature who knows nothing of the world yet?

With my hand still touching Elisa's shoulder, a sudden surge of intense will and determination fills me. I can feel Elisa promising herself to always give the best to her son, to make sure her son grows well and happy.

It's too beautiful that I almost forget to breathe.

This... is magical. This is the true sense of magic that everyone seems to have forgotten or not realized.

We have the ability to bring life to this world. And only women are gifted with this magic.

Well, with the help of very very tiny fishes from males in the beginning.

–to be continued–